17 January 2011

Comet Elenin is Coming!

One of the members of our research team is an astronomer at a largeobservatory. We've been having a number of exchanges about the theoriesof James McCanney. Unfortunately, I can't find any really good videos ofMcCanney talking about his ideas. I did find the following which arebasically just audio with minimal graphics. They do explain his ideas sohave a listen before you continue on. If anybody has links to bettervideos, please let me know!

Okay, now you know a bit about the possibilities of comets asparts of the Electric Solar System. McCanney cites all the strangeweather on earth, strange behavior of the sun, that arrived in tandemwith Comet Hale-Bopp. So now along comes Comet Elenin. Let's start withthe likely trajectory. On the image, which came from my astronomerfriend, it looks like this:

Hopefully, it should be visible somewhere around mid-August. Its closestapproach to the Sun is scheduled in the first half of September. Whereit will go exactly - we do not know. Since its orbit is close to theecliptic plane, it should be visible low in the sky. Orbital parametersare yet uncertain. So far it looks harmless:

SpeedN-NMComet Elenin (C/2010 X1) appears as a tiny, faint smudge in this stackof four 240-second exposures taken on the morning of December 10, 2010,with a remote-controlled telescope in New Mexico. (The quadrupled starsare due to the comet's motion between exposures.)

Itis called Elenin since it was discovered by Leonid Elenin. I expect theinternet to soon be ringing with rumors and news bytes about this comet.For now, there isn't much to say so I'm sharing what I've received inprivate from an astronomer at a big observatory that shall remainanonymous for the moment. He says:

It is too early to accurately predict the future path - it's orbital parameters haven't been revised.

Among the observable hyperbolic and parabolic comets (those that come from the Oort cloud) this one has the smallest perihelion distance and the smallest inclination to the ecliptic plane.

Comet Elenin's orbit may be unstable as it may encounter some dark bodies, for example, in the asteroid belt or even some Taurid objects. What would happen in those cases is a matter of luck.

This comet may carry a significant amount of material with it and if it follows the currently projected orbit, the Earth may very well pass through this material.

If Elenin is anything like what Victor Clube or James McCanney describes, we might be in for some surprises - good or bad, who knows?

I've received updates on Comet Elenin from the astronomical insider who shall, as I said, remain anonymous for the moment.

The first item of note is that, with the update on the orbit of Elenin,which was made on 09 Jan 11, that is 9-1-11 (interesting, no?), it isscheduled to reach perihelion on the 9th of September, that is: 9-9-11.Another interesting numerical combo.

My friend has made a nice little animation of the calculated orbit:

An interesting alignment occurs right around the autumnal equinox wherewe have Earth, Comet Elenin, the Sun and almost Mercury lined up likeducks.

Now, have a look at this image:

Ihope you can make out the yellow line of Elenin's orbit. (Click on theimage to enlarge it) In the image, Astronomical Insider has included theposition of the asteroid belt as a big circle. He has also noted theposition of the member of that belt, Schiela, which is the asteroid thatbegan to develop a comet-like coma back in December. The blue ellipseis an approximation of the southern Taurid meteor stream. Something maychange, of course, when the comet crosses the asteroid belt inMarch/April.

2 comments:

Many people are talking about Comet Elenin and it's alignments but they're only going to alignment 4. Go to are governments webpage http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=c%2F2010+x1&orb=1 and track Comet Elenin to its fifth alignment. It's around December 21, 2012 coincidence?? I don't know! George H. Compton IV